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Recording Industry Goes for Blood; Risky South Pole Evacuation May be Needed; NASA Prepares for Possible Hurricane; Father of the H- Bomb Dies

Aired September 13, 2003 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Well today on NEXT@CNN, the South Pole say harsh place at the best of times, so imagine being stuck there with serious medical problems. That's the situation for a South Pole worker. Right now, we'll talk to a guest who's been in this very same situation.
Also, the recording industry has upped the ante in its fight against illegal downloading. Could the strategy backfire?

And California voters go to the polls in less than a month to decide whether to recall the governor. With 135 candidates in the race, is modern voting technology up to the challenge?

Well, this week, the Recording Industry Association of America filed 261 lawsuits against online music file sharers, including a 12- year-old New York girl.

The RIAA believes the illegal sharing of copyrighted music is to blame for a 31 percent drop in CD sales since mid 2000.

CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has more.

Hi, Dan.

DAN SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. That's right. The RIAA certainly seems to be stepping up its efforts to stop illegal fire sharing.

But the industry group has also made an offer of amnesty, hoping that some offenders will step forward and promise to stop sharing music files online. Will it work?

Well, joining us now from San Francisco is Michael Copeland from "Business 2.0" magazine. We should say that "Business 2.0" is part of CNN's parent company, AOL/Time Warner.

Michael, thank you for being with us.

MICHAEL COPELAND, "BUSINESS 2.0" MAGAZINE: Thanks for having me.

SIEBERG: First of all, these lawsuits recently seem to be changing the face of what we'd come to expect from a downloader. It seemed that everyone from a 12-year-old girl to a 71-year-old grandfather are part of this.

Is this hurting or helping the recording industry's case?

COPELAND: It's probably doing a little bit of both. I'd say it's more hurting from a P.R. perspective. They've got to be worried that they're alienating more fans than they're making friends. I wouldn't be surprised if some people who haven't downloaded music might do it now just because they'd like to get back at this sort of thuggish behavior.

SIEBERG: So ultimately, you're saying that these lawsuits in general are hurting the recording industry's case.

I'd like to bring up a statement, if we can, from the recording industry on what they say and the reason they're saying that they've gone to the lawsuit or the litigation strategy, anyway.

And what they say is "Nobody likes having to play the heavy and having to resort to litigation. But when you're being victimized by an illegal activity, there comes a time when have you to stand up and take appropriate action. We simply cannot allow only pirates to continue destroying the livelihoods, not only of songwriters and recording artists, but also of tens of thousands of less celebrated people in the music industry, from engineers and technicians to record store clerks and CD plant workers."

Michael, at the last count, we've heard that maybe up to 60 million people are doing this downloading and file sharing. When are the lawsuits going to end?

COPELAND: I don't think it will end. It's going to increase, and it's not just going to be on computers. It's going to be soon on your cellular phone. Obviously, there's millions of MP3 players out there. I think it's just going to grow and grow.

Appropriate action for the music industry shouldn't be suing. It should be building better services so people can download music legally.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the amnesty program, as well. We mentioned that off the top. Now, this is extended to not the people who were the subject of these current lawsuits, correct? Who is -- who could be participating in this amnesty program?

COPELAND: Well, the amnesty program is targeted at those who've download music illegally and who can fess up and protect themselves from further prosecution. If they say they won't ever do it again, and they will delete all of the illegal files on their hard drives the.

I would be surprised if too many people would do it. You need a lawyer to sort of read through it and tell you whether you should sign this amnesty, and it leaves you open to lawsuits from other record labels that aren't represented by the RIAA.

SIEBERG: Now although the recording industry admits, they certainly seem to realize that they're coming across as rather heavy- handed with the lawsuit approach and maybe a lot of people may not buy into the amnesty program. What can they do?

You mentioned some of these other services that they need to try to get out there, maybe it's iTunes or BuyMusic or others. Should that be their whole focus, is trying to encourage people to do legal downloading, not go after the illegal side?

COPELAND: I think in the long run they're going to have to really focus on the business.

I think the services that are out there now, with the exception of iTunes and a couple of others, are a bit clunky. But if they've cut their effort into building a service that was as convenient as downloading is now, I think they could draw a lot of -- there's 40 million households in America that have at least one digital music file on their computer. That's a huge opportunity.

So there shouldn't be sort of targeting them with lawsuits. They should be targeting them with sort of offers and good services that these people will then convert into paying for their music.

SIEBERG: What about the artists in this case. The recording industry is meant to represent a lot of these artists and the record labels. But what are you hearing that they are saying about these lawsuits? Do they feel that they're a little bit too heavy-handed?

COPELAND: I think I've heard, it was the lead singer of the band, the Flaming Lips. He likes to have the band's music out there, and he thinks that the more people who listen to it the more people who might go in and buy it, whether it's a single song from iTunes or the entire album in a record shop or a CD store.

I think that artists have good reason to be worried that their fans are being treated harshly, and may turn away and never want to buy their music again.

SIEBERG: Speaking of fans, as we mentioned earlier, some of the people that were named in these lawsuits were younger. They were children. They were, in one case, there's a 12-year-old girl. Should parents be responsible for what their kids are doing online, if they're participating in this illegal activity?

COPELAND: Parents should be responsible for a lot of things. Whether they are is another question.

I think kids probably don't have a real good sense that this is illegal, and -- but even if they do understand that it is illegal, that doesn't mean they're going to stop doing it. There was -- sort of file sharing traffic slumped at the end of the summer, and it picked up, right up again as soon as school started. So kids are going to take risks, and they'll continue this file sharing, unless there's a real easy alternative, and an alternative that they can afford.

SIEBERG: All right, Mike, we only have about 15 seconds left. But if you can, a quick summary, perhaps, on what you see the future of music downloading and music file sharing. Are these lawsuits eventually going to be the answer? What can we expect in the future?

COPELAND: I think we can expect more and more downloading. I think the music industry needs to embrace file sharing and work with Morpheus and Grokster and Kazaa and come up to a solution that works for all parties.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Michael Copeland from "Business 2.0," thank you very much for joining us from San Francisco. Thanks for being with us.

COPELAND: Thank you. Thanks.

SIEBERG: All right, Fredricka. That's going to do it for me. It's one of those stories that just keeps continuing. It seems like a new chapter every week.

WHITFIELD: It seems like it's never ending.

SIEBERG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: You're on top of it. Thanks very much, Dan.

All right, well, straight ahead, stuck in the South Pole with a medical emergency. Coming up, we'll talk to someone who knows firsthand what that's like.

And later in the show, the Guiness Book of World Records says this is the world's biggest TV screen. We'll show you what it's used for when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's the stuff of nightmares. Imagine yourself cut off from the world, virtually marooned at a tiny science station at the South Pole in the midst of a very long polar night, and you're sick.

That's what's going on right now, according to the federal agency that oversees the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. Authorities are telling us very little about the person who has fallen ill, out of respect for his privacy. But they are moving aircraft into position in Chile to be ready, in the event the decision is made to attempt a risky evacuation.

Joining us now from Wilmington, North Carolina, to help us understand what an emergency evacuation from the South Pole is all about is a woman who has been through it herself, Dr. Jerri Nielsen. She joins us now from North Carolina.

Good to see you, Doctor Nielsen.

DR. JERRI NIELSEN, WAS EVACUATED FROM SOUTH POLE: Hello, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know firsthand what it's like. You diagnosed yourself with breast cancer. You ended up having to treat yourself for the disease, as well, before it was safe enough to evacuate you to safety.

So describe why mid-September is a particularly dangerous time of year in which to try carry out an evacuation in the South Pole.

NIELSEN: Well, the South Pole's weather is such that you can only get in and out about four months a year. The rest of the time it's easier to get off outer space than off the South Pole.

And at this time of year, it's still too cold. Aircraft fuel turns to JELL-O. The hydraulics don't work. Not only that, but the weather patterns are very unstable. Terrible winds in the spring.

WHITFIELD: And because of that, the people who are generally part of this science center have to go through quite rigorous medical checkups before they even go, knowing that being able to get out for a medical emergency might be difficult, at best.

In your case, you had to wait quite awhile before it was finally safe for you.

We don't know much about this worker who has fallen ill in the South Pole. We don't know if the evacuation will take place. But under ordinary circumstances, is there always at least one doctor there to perhaps administer what kind of medical attention can be given?

NIELSEN: That's right. There's always a doctor there. During the time I was there, the doctor was the only medical person. Now, there's also other people who are educated in the medical arts.

But everybody who goes to the South Pole has an extensive, extensive medical evaluation before they go, and even a major dental evaluation. They have teeth pulled, root canals done, and a psychiatric evaluation that takes an entire day.

WHITFIELD: And I understand sometimes, or at least in the past, there have been cases where people have their appendices removed simply because there may be a potential of a problem somewhere down the line.

NIELSEN: That's right. But mostly, that was done by the Navy for the Arctic. We don't do that anymore. I wish that they had at times, when I was nervous down there, being the doctor. There was a doctor who, in the '60s, removed his own appendix using a mirror from the Russian station. So that just shows you what people are capable of doing when they have to.

WHITFIELD: Unbelievable. In this case right now, given we don't know much about the medical condition, what sort of tools are available to the people at this center? What kind of medical treatment would they ordinarily be able to administer?

NIELSEN: Well, they have a physician who is trained as an internist. So they really don't have a surgical person. I don't know what kind of medical problems this person has. I think surgery is probably the most frightening there, because you don't have a surgeon. You don't have an anesthesia person.

But they have equipment. They have an X-ray machine, and some blood tests available to them, but a rudimentary hospital. Since I got sick there, they have added telemedicine. So now you can watch on the television through the Internet, and see what's going on and other doctors can evaluate from the United States. I'm sure that really helps.

WHITFIELD: They didn't initially have that in your case, but somebody really had the fortitude in which to kind of rig something like that in your case though, right?

NIELSEN: That's right. My wonderful girlfriend, Lisa Beale (ph), our computer tech, put together an old medical microscope, and a computer, and a camera. And it took her a month, but she was able to get the slides of the tissue that we got from my breast from doing a biopsy and send it over the Internet so that pathologists could actually read the slide in the United States. Now, that's really something. That's a MacGuyver.

WHITFIELD: No kidding. That's really fascinating. Well, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, we're so glad that you were able to join us. Thanks very much. And of course, our best wishes go out to the worker that we still don't know very much about, who is in the South Pole with potentially a serious medical problem.

NIELSEN: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Thanks very much, doctor.

NIELSEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, the South Pole isn't the only place where Mother Nature is showing her teeth.

Hurricane Isabel is still churning in the Atlantic, about 400 miles northeast of the U.S. Virgin Islands. So far, it is a category five storm with top winds of 160 miles per hour.

It's too soon to tell if Isabel will hit the U.S. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is making arrangements to protect the space shuttle fleet. David Waters from our affiliate central Florida News 13 has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID WATERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone in NASA is keeping an eye on Hurricane Isabel, from the International Space Station astronauts, who just sent back this new view as they flew over, to NASA managers on the ground, who are protecting the remaining three space shuttles from the approaching hurricane.

BRUCE BUCKINGHAM, NASA: In anticipation of a possible storm coming our way, the first thing we're going to be doing is to close the payload bay doors. WATERS: Closing the giant payload bay doors on each orbiter will protect Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavor a bit, if there's a roof leak. But the buildings around the orbiter will take the brunt of the hurricane if it hits.

BUCKINGHAM: We feel confident that leaving the vehicles in those buildings will protect them.

WATERS: the strongest winds four years ago during Hurricane Floyd damaged the outside of the vehicle assembly building. Those winds reached 66 miles an hour.

Those two buildings are two of the three orbiter processing facilities. The three orbiters are in all three facilities right now. But those buildings and that giant vehicle assembly building behind me can only withstand 105 mile an hour winds, and Hurricane Isabel is much stronger.

BUCKINGHAM: If we do get a direct hit, there's not a whole lot you can do, other than just do the very best you can and then hope for the best.

WATERS: NASA says the best chance for the orbiters is where they are now, but they may take some extra steps, depending on what Hurricane Isabel does.

BUCKINGHAM: We can do anything like jack the orbiter up off the ground in case we get a tidal surge, so it's not flooded.

WATER: At the Kennedy Space Center, David Waters, central Florida, News 13.

WHITFIELD: There's violent weather on the other side of the globe, as well. A massive typhoon swept across South Korea overnight, but it's now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

South Korean officials say Typhoon Maemi is responsible for at least 62 deaths and 25 people, however, are still missing. When it hit the Korean Peninsula, Maemi carried winds near 134 miles per hour.

When we come back, a major figure in the history of nuclear weapons died this week. We'll have the story of a remarkable life.

And later, has voting technology improved since the 2000 presidential elections? We'll look at whether it will be an issue in the California recall election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The man many called the father of the H-bomb died this week at the age of 95. Edward Teller died Tuesday at his home on the Stanford University campus, suffering from a stroke.

Teller was considered a brilliant scientist, but was also a controversial figure who didn't hesitate to mix it up with the political arena. Ann Kellan looks back at his extraordinary life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN: At the dawn of the nuclear age, Edward Teller was there. Teller worked alongside Enrique Fermi when the first nuclear chain reaction was reached in Chicago in 1942.

Later, he joined the Manhattan Project with Robert Oppenheimer and others to build the first atomic bomb that exploded in the New Mexico desert.

Teller was born in Hungary in 1908. In the 1930s, he taught in Germany. He fled after Adolph Hitler came to power. During most of his adult life he would have a deep suspicion of totalitarianism.

Teller moved to the U.S. As one of the nation's leading engineers, he was recruited to join the team at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He helped design and test the two nuclear bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy, that were dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war in August 1945.

But Teller said the two cities should not have been destroyed. Instead, he said the U.S. should have demonstrated the weapons some place where there were no people, then told the Japanese to surrender.

After World War II, Teller went to work on the more powerful hydrogen bomb. It was because of that discovery he earned the title "the father of the H-Bomb."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's Tony going to his Cub Scout meeting. Tony knows the bomb can explode any time of the year, day or night. Duck and cover.

KELLAN: In the 1950s, as the country became preoccupied with the bomb and civil defense measures like duck and cover, Teller and Oppenheimer would become involved in a bitter dispute about the H- Bomb.

Oppenheimer, seeing the destruction caused by the bombs dropped on Japan, would oppose the development of the H-Bomb. Teller would urge that more bombs be built and tested. Teller even questioned Oppenheimer's loyalty to the U.S.

Coming in the early days of the so-called red scare and Cold War, it was a fierce accusation. Teller would later work on dozens of other military projects, including the founding of the Lawrence Livermore Weapons Research Labs in California.

EDWARD TELLER, SCIENTIST: This laboratory has done a lot to preserve peace by deterrence.

KELLAN: In the 1980s, he was a key supporter of President Reagan's plan for an anti-missile system that came to be known as Star Wars. TELLER: We are talking about defense, about saving of human lives, about deterring war by making the probability of victory by our adversaries small enough so that actually they will not attack us or attack our allies.

KELLAN: Edward Teller was considered a Cold War hawk for his unquestioned support of the atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb and later, SDI.

TELLER: I believe that what we need is to work against the causes of war, to work for international cooperation, and work on defensive efforts, to be simply against weapons is superficial and mistaken.

KELLAN: And when asked by CNN's Miles O'Brien in 1995 if he had any regrets about his sometimes controversial career, Teller responded...

TELLER: None whatsoever.

KELLAN: Ann Kellan, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up in our next half hour, you've seen a lot of the major candidates in the California recall election. But there are 135 people running. Can today's voting technology handle a ballot like that?

Also ahead, a family of homemade robots, built by a man who didn't finish grade school.

Those stories and much more coming up after a break and a check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: NEXT@CNN continues in a moment after a look at what's going on at this hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More stories at thing be top of the hour. Now back to NEXT@CNN.

After the disaster of all those hanging chads and butterfly balance during the 2000 presidential election, a lot of states and the federal government moved fast to try to fix it. But could the fix make the problem worse? Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is back with more on the possibilities and the problems of electronic voting -- Dan.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Fredricka. Yeah, the global embarrassment, shall we say, of the 2000 U.S. presidential election got a lot of politicians looking for something new, something better. But, exactly where should technology fit into that picture? Well, the upcoming California recall election has put electronic voting in the spotlight, again.

And, joining me now is Professor David Dill from Stanford University, a computer scientist who's been studying electronic voting, and in Sacramento Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit nonpartisan California Voter Organization.

David, I'd like to start with you, if I could. First of all, do you believe that electronic voting, and we're talking about touch screens, here. Do you think that they're capable of handling the California recall election at this point? What are the potential pitfalls involved?

DAVID DILL, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Well, I think the worst pitfall is that everything appears to go totally smoothly, but we don't know whether the votes coming out of the machines match what went into the machines.

SIEBERG: OK, let's talk a little bit in general, first of all, these machines are a touch screen machine, you go up there and select the candidates. There are a number of different types of technologies that are being used; there are 135 candidates on the ballot. First of all, can this technology even handle that number of candidates?

DILL: I'm not sure. It's got to be difficult for a voter. They're going to have to page through all of those candidates and find their chosen person in the middle of a list that's been basically randomly ordered. So, that can't be too easy. But, there are going to be problems even with paper ballots, that's know not my biggest concern, here.

SIEBERG: All right, Kim, we're seeing some images of people who have been voting in the past. What has voter response been to electronic voting or this type of technology? Have people been positive about it, the average voter out there?

KIM ALEXANDER, CALIF. VOTER FOUNDATION: We really don't know. There haven't been comprehensive polls that have been done across the nation. The only poll I've seen was done in Georgia, following the 2002 presidential election, when that state went all touch screen and that poll, done by a Peachstate Poll found a significant racial disparity in voter confidence between black voters and white voters. So, I'm not at all confident that voters are confident that these machines are going to work in a way that will store their ballots properly.

SIEBERG: Now, we've also been hearing about security concerns, most recently a couple of university researchers found what they believe were holes in the code that helped to operate these machines. Why does it seem like -- and odd too, this is to either of you -- why does seem like so many politicians and county officials are so eager to adopt this technology?

DILL: Well, the technology has some advantages.

ALEXANDER Well, I...

DILL: So they're not talking to computer scientists enough, I think is my quick answer. I'll let Kim take it from there.

ALEXANDER: One of the reasons why the machines are popular with election officials is because they are being sold to them by the vendors on the promise that they're paperless and that these election officials won't need to store paper ballots anymore. But, you know, at the end of the day, I can't think of anything more important for our election departments to do than to protect our paper ballots. So, what my group, the California Voter Foundation and others, are calling for is a voter verified paper trail to back up the ballots and if we had that, we would be able to address most of the risks associated with computerized voting.

SIEBERG: OK now, we talked -- I touched on earlier how there are some different technologies being used throughout California. I believe we have a graphic that will help to illustrate just how many different counties there are and how many different ones -- different types of technology. We see here that there is the Data Vote, Optical Scan, Punch Card and Touch Screen. Does this make it more difficult to try and tabulate all of this? Should there be a streamlined way of handling all the votes, whether in California or anywhere else, and would technology help that? David, can you answer that question?

DILL: I'm not sure that we need a uniform standard across the state voting equipment. What my biggest concern is is that we not adopt unsafe voting equipment, and I consider the touch screen machines that are now being considered, and that have been purchased in some places, as just not being sufficiently trustworthy for the important task of handling our elections.

SIEBERG: Is there a way between now and the California recall election to assuage everybody's concerns or are we sort of on the path to that and we're just going to have to see what happens after the election results? Kim, can you answer that question?

ALEXANDER: Yes, one thing that the four counties that are using touch screens for the recall, which is Alameda, Plumas, Riverside, and Shasta one thing that they could do is to print out paper ballot images of every digital ballot cast and make those available to the public if there is a need for a recount. That's something that voters thought they were getting when they passed the Prop 41 Modernization Bond Act in march, 2002, and the counties aren't doing it, and I think if we had, at a minimum, these paper ballot images, that would help address some of the risks. Ideally those paper ballot images would not be printed at the end of the voting day, but they would be printed at the time the voter votes because the voter is the only person who knows for sure how they intend to vote, so those paper ballot images should be produced at the polling places, they should stay at the polling places and we can use those to conduct a recount if necessary.

SIEBERG: And of course, many people just -- most people just don't get a chance to vote very often, so they're obviously not practicing using any of these touch screen machines.

David, let's talk a little bit, though, about the security of the code again, one more time. The companies that make these different machines say it's proprietary, they cannot allow anyone to look at the code and see just how secure that it is. What can be done about that? Should there be more of an oversight on this code and the making of these machines?

DILL: Well, absolutely, there needs to be more oversight. The current situation -- the current process for approving these things and designing them is obviously full of holes. The researchers you mentioned earlier proved that by looking at code that was accidentally released by one of the largest vendors of voting machines. Beyond that, the solution that Kim suggests is really the one that I prefer. Instead of focusing on trying make the machines more bullet-proof, let's just have a backup mechanism where voters can say check their votes were properly recorded and then if we have a manual recount, we can be guaranteed it's meaningful, because it's counting the ballots the voters themselves have checked for accuracy.

SIEBERG: All right, well, let's end on a positive note. We only got about 20 to 30 seconds left. Kim, touch screen voting and technology -- you know, it was intended to solve some problems and make life a little easier, giving disabled people a chance to vote easier. What are some of the positive notes we can talk about with touch screen or technology voting?

ALEXANDER: There are a lot of positives, and I actually would prefer myself to vote on a computer interface than on a paper ballot that I've been using -- the punch card, because I think it is more user-friendly. We can do ballots in multiple languages; we can give disabled people the ability to cast a secret ballot without assistance and those are all things we can do. So, just to be clear, I'm not opposed to touch screen voting. I just want to see it implemented responsibility so everybody can have confidence in the outcome elections and our voting ballots can be actually transparent to everyone.

SIEBERG: Kim Alexander, the president of the nonprofit nonpartisan California Voter Foundation and David Dill, a computer scientist at Stanford University.

Thank you both for joining us today.

DILL: Thank you.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

SIEBERG: Fredricka, that's going to do it for me. I guess there's a lot of optimism surrounding the technology and e-voting, but it needs to be tempered with making sure everything's in place and the security concerns addressed. So, we just have to wait and see, as we always say, what happens after the election. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Good advice. Thanks a lot, Dan.

SIEBERG: All right.

WHITFIELD: Well, when we come back, if you like big screen TVs, you'll love this. We'll show what you it takes to light up a screen that's longer than a 747. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How can a male Baboon recognize which of these youngsters is his when females mate with several males and only produce one offspring? Father's know according to findings in the journal "Nature."

SUSAN ALBERTS, DUKE UNIVERSITY: The female's really quite calm and relaxed, sitting next to him.

KELLAN: Despite multiple sex partners here, mother seems to know who dad is, too. She's comfortable when one male touches her infant, but when another tries...

ALBERTS: The other male's going to approaches again and try to hold the infant and that makes her nervous, she cowers and moves away.

KELLAN: Susan Alberts, along with other researchers at Duke, Prinston, UCLA, and the Museum of Kenya have spent years tracking Baboon groups in Kenya. They studied their DNA and found dads, not only know their own offspring, they protect them.

ALBERTS: They'll get between the kid and its opponent, threaten the kid's opponent, they'll chase the kid's opponent off.

KELLAN: Similar to this scene.

ALBERTS: What you see here, is a male intervening on behalf of his little sister.

KELLAN: A father baboon, she says, would act the same way and stand up to the bully.

ALBERTS: You can see the little girl hiding behind her brother, staying close to him and eventually he chases her aggressor off.

KELLAN: How do the fathers baboons know their offspring? Researchers can't say exactly. There's an armpit theory, dad can smell himself in the offspring or maybe he can see similarities in features. Maybe the mother sends signals to the male. But, how she knows is again, anyone's guess.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, time now for a check of some "NEXT News" headlines. Police have arrested a man in last month's arson and vandalism incident at a California car dealership. 20 hummers were destroyed and another 20 hummers and SUVs were damaged by fire and spray painting. The Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of militant environmentalists, claimed responsibility. Joshua Connelly is now being held at the West Covina, California jail. He denies any involvement. University of Tokyo researchers have developed the first humanoid robot that can jump up from a lying down position and into a crouched position. The researchers say conventional robots get up slowly because every little movement is controlled. They say the movement of this robot is controlled only at certain points, that allows it to follow its own momentum to jump into that crouching position.

And, a farmer outside Beijing has created some robots of his own from junk and recycled materials. Farmer Woo Uloo (PH) has made robots that can dance, jump, walk, run, on ceilings, even screw in light bulbs, and light up cigarettes. Look at that.

Well, the neighbors called Woo's creations his sons. Woo says robots can replace humans in doing some very simple chores. He says robots are more trustworthy and they're not as lazy. Woo has created more than 20 machines over the past eight years and he never finished primary school. He's brilliant just naturally.

Well, horseracing is hugely popular in Hong Kong and one racetrack has pulled out all the stops to give visitors a good look at all the action.

Kristie Lu Stout has the story, now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On race day up to 40,000 punters hit the stands at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, all clamoring for a piece of the action. They now have another way to keep track of the race, the mother of all TVs.

(on camera): This Diamond Vision screen is eight meters high and 70.4 meters wide. Now, that's roughly the length of a Boeing 747.

(voice-over): It's a Guinness World Record holder and the pride of Steve Beason, the club's executive director of I.T.

STEVE BEASON, HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB: We went everywhere to actually procure this. As you can imagine, you don't go and buy these...

STOUT (on camera): You can't buy these on the shelves.

BEASON: No, they don't have them in most shops and they don't fit in most people's houses, so we traveled all over the world to look at the different venders and conduct a lot of discrete tests with our team. We had audio/visual, we had racing, we had betting people, we had, of course, had I.T., but traveling all around the world, including out to Montreal in the middle of winter just to make sure we got the right product to bring to Hong Kong.

STOUT: It's the longest in the world -- it's longer from the screen -- then the screens that you've had in the past, but is it necessarily better in terms of clarity or resolution?

BEASON: Yeah, the resolution is much better with this screen. I have an LED segment here, that shows you all of the different pixels of the screen. This is a comparison of what the old one looked like. As you can see here, this is what -- what makes up one dot or one image on it. We can show over ten million colors on this screen, here and you can see the resolution's much better. We're actually able to show six different simultaneous TV screens on that Diamond Vision, right now, so it provides for much better clarity, much better resolution, and a lot more information to our customers.

STOUT: This is one single panel -- you can just look at the number of microchips in back, here. How many of these panels make up that TV screen?

BEASON: Actually, about 4,000 of these panels make up the screen.

STOUT: It looks cool, it sounds cool that -- to say that you own and operate the world's longest TV. But, do you need one in a live event? I mean, how does it change the experience of horseracing?

BEASON: Well, I mean, we have a continued mission, really, to provide world-class betting and racing entertainment to Hong Kong and the world, for that matter, and this actually provides an enriched product to the customers. They don't have to peer over the top just to see their horses when they're on the back stretch, now they can see the close-up of the race, they can also see the wide-angle shot of the race and of course, during bright sunlight like we're in right now, you can see it's crisp and clear. So, that's important to providing a real good, immersive experience for our customers.

STOUT: Well, Steve Beason, thank you very much, indeed. And thank you for sharing what is a bit of, literally, a piece of record- breaking technology, here at the Sha Tin racecourse.

I'm Kristie Lu Stout for CNN in Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When we get back, how would you like to get paid to play computer games? We'll meet a guy who makes a living -- a pretty good living, doing just that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, kids may have a little ammunition to fire back at mom and dad next time they're told to turn off that Playstation or Xbox. There's a whole new career field emerging right now, professional video game player and you can make some pretty serious bucks, too.

Technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, is back with more on that story. Hi Dan, again.

SIEBERG: Hi Fred, you can just hear some parents groaning, right now...

WHITFIELD: Yeah. Oh man. SIEBERG: ...when they're watching this, can't you? Well, it might...

WHITFIELD: They're not going to like you after this.

SIEBERG: That's right. But, you know, it might be one of the top ten signs of the apocalypse, at least some parents might think so. Some other kids, well, they might be really envious. And, our next guest gets paid to play video games. The sponsorship was announced Tuesday by CompUSA and Nvidia Corporation to help them out and Dave "Moto" Geffon joins us now, from Los Angeles.

Dave, first of all, this recent sponsorship you've gotten from Invidia and CompUSA, how does this help you to be able to play video games? Are you getting salary or some extra money is this -- and is this your only job?

DAVE "MOTO" GEFFON, PRO VIDEO GAME PLAYER: Well, Daniel, this is my only job, this is my own means of income and I do make enough money playing games to support myself, full time.

SIEBERG: And, for some people out there let's just step back for a second, and they might sort of scoff at this, they might say you're playing video games, you're getting paid to do this. Is this a legitimate job for somebody? How do you respond to that?

GEFFON: You know, I view it as a legitimate job, because we work hard. We spend time working to practice and get better, and we dedicate as much time a day as most people would at any normal -- other job. We practice anywhere from four to eight hours a day and we're serious about what we do.

SIEBERG: All right, well let's explain to people who aren't familiar with how your team works -- Team 3-D. You guys play "Counter-Strike," which is one of the most popular games out there, in terms of a multiplayer game. And, we're some -- we're just seeing some images of how you all get together and compete in different tournaments. Explain to people how this works and how you get paid for that?

GEFFON: Well, we get together, usually, we can get anywhere from 12 to 13 tournaments a year. They usually take place from about three seven days and compete against other teams around the world for large cash prizes, and at these tournaments we can win up to anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000. I mean, we're really making good money.

SIEBERG: And, the next tournament you're going to be playing in is in October, I believe, and this is the World Cyber Games in Korea? Tell me about that.

GEFFON: Yeah, the World Cyber Games is almost like the Olympics of professional gaming. All the best players and teams from around the world gather in Seoul, Korea, and take part in a large, like I said, Olympic-style event against each other, and you have these teams competing -- I think it's 55 different countries, and all -- it's all the best teams around the world competing for, I believe it's $350,000 U.S. cash price.

SIEBERG: And, you -- probably helps to have a pretty nice PC to play some of these games. We're seeing some of the more tricked-out or hotrod machines. Does that give you a competitive advantage? Do you have your own type of computer you use?

GEFFON: Oh, absolutely. I have actually, several computers that are all top of the line and when you're a professional gamer, as myself, you've got to always be on top of technology to be able to play your best and compete with everyone else. I mean, you got to be right up there.

SIEBERG: Dave, for some of the people out there who might be skeptical of what you do and the idea of a professional gamer -- what needs to happen to legitimize this as a sport, let's say, and to make it more appealing to spectators, because a lot of people may not know what's going on.

GEFFON: You know, I think people need to realize what we're doing is -- it's not an easy job. Playing video games competitively is very intense, there's a lot of practice involved and there's a lot of pressure. We practice hard. We have a desire to win and we want to win. There's already a large spectator contingency of people who follow the tournaments and, I mean, the last major tournament we went to -- I think upwards of 50,000 people were spectating the event. I think more people just need to step back and kind of open up and realize, yeah, this is something pretty serious going on.

SIEBERG: All right, well Dave "Moto" Geffon funny way to be serious about video games. Probably a little bit of fun thrown in there, I'm sure you have a little bit of fun on occasions.

GEFFON: Absolutely, it's a lot of fun, what we do.

SIEBERG: All right, well Dave "Moto" Geffon from Los Angeles, thanks so much for joining us, a professional gamer out there, Fredricka. So, again, it might make some people jealous and it make might (SIC) some people just sort of scoff in disbelief. So, just depending on which side of the fence you're on.

WHITFIELD: I have a feeling is he the envy of a whole lot of folks out there.

SIEBERG: A whole lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot, Dan.

SIEBERG: All right.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's all we have time for, today. But, "NEXT" will be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern time. Among the stories we'll be covering: The color of money. Some U.S. bills will soon be taking on a pastel tint. We'll tell you why, how, and when you'll be seeing these new hues in your wallet. That's story and more coming up tomorrow. Hope you'll be joining us and watching us. Thanks for watching today. Ahead on CNN: "CNN Live Saturday" coming up in just a few minutes from now. In the "Dollar Sign" segment we'll take your phone calls and e-mail questions on how to negotiate the best deal, whether it be buying a car or perhaps negotiating a new salary. And, that's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time, with profiles of Osama bin Laden and Phil Spector. And, "CNN Live Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern with the look at a unique program that's helping the children of victims of the September 11th attacks.

First, a quick break, and then I'll be telling you what's happening at this hour.

END

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Evacuation May be Needed; NASA Prepares for Possible Hurricane; Father of the H-Bomb Dies>


Aired September 13, 2003 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Well today on NEXT@CNN, the South Pole say harsh place at the best of times, so imagine being stuck there with serious medical problems. That's the situation for a South Pole worker. Right now, we'll talk to a guest who's been in this very same situation.
Also, the recording industry has upped the ante in its fight against illegal downloading. Could the strategy backfire?

And California voters go to the polls in less than a month to decide whether to recall the governor. With 135 candidates in the race, is modern voting technology up to the challenge?

Well, this week, the Recording Industry Association of America filed 261 lawsuits against online music file sharers, including a 12- year-old New York girl.

The RIAA believes the illegal sharing of copyrighted music is to blame for a 31 percent drop in CD sales since mid 2000.

CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has more.

Hi, Dan.

DAN SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. That's right. The RIAA certainly seems to be stepping up its efforts to stop illegal fire sharing.

But the industry group has also made an offer of amnesty, hoping that some offenders will step forward and promise to stop sharing music files online. Will it work?

Well, joining us now from San Francisco is Michael Copeland from "Business 2.0" magazine. We should say that "Business 2.0" is part of CNN's parent company, AOL/Time Warner.

Michael, thank you for being with us.

MICHAEL COPELAND, "BUSINESS 2.0" MAGAZINE: Thanks for having me.

SIEBERG: First of all, these lawsuits recently seem to be changing the face of what we'd come to expect from a downloader. It seemed that everyone from a 12-year-old girl to a 71-year-old grandfather are part of this.

Is this hurting or helping the recording industry's case?

COPELAND: It's probably doing a little bit of both. I'd say it's more hurting from a P.R. perspective. They've got to be worried that they're alienating more fans than they're making friends. I wouldn't be surprised if some people who haven't downloaded music might do it now just because they'd like to get back at this sort of thuggish behavior.

SIEBERG: So ultimately, you're saying that these lawsuits in general are hurting the recording industry's case.

I'd like to bring up a statement, if we can, from the recording industry on what they say and the reason they're saying that they've gone to the lawsuit or the litigation strategy, anyway.

And what they say is "Nobody likes having to play the heavy and having to resort to litigation. But when you're being victimized by an illegal activity, there comes a time when have you to stand up and take appropriate action. We simply cannot allow only pirates to continue destroying the livelihoods, not only of songwriters and recording artists, but also of tens of thousands of less celebrated people in the music industry, from engineers and technicians to record store clerks and CD plant workers."

Michael, at the last count, we've heard that maybe up to 60 million people are doing this downloading and file sharing. When are the lawsuits going to end?

COPELAND: I don't think it will end. It's going to increase, and it's not just going to be on computers. It's going to be soon on your cellular phone. Obviously, there's millions of MP3 players out there. I think it's just going to grow and grow.

Appropriate action for the music industry shouldn't be suing. It should be building better services so people can download music legally.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the amnesty program, as well. We mentioned that off the top. Now, this is extended to not the people who were the subject of these current lawsuits, correct? Who is -- who could be participating in this amnesty program?

COPELAND: Well, the amnesty program is targeted at those who've download music illegally and who can fess up and protect themselves from further prosecution. If they say they won't ever do it again, and they will delete all of the illegal files on their hard drives the.

I would be surprised if too many people would do it. You need a lawyer to sort of read through it and tell you whether you should sign this amnesty, and it leaves you open to lawsuits from other record labels that aren't represented by the RIAA.

SIEBERG: Now although the recording industry admits, they certainly seem to realize that they're coming across as rather heavy- handed with the lawsuit approach and maybe a lot of people may not buy into the amnesty program. What can they do?

You mentioned some of these other services that they need to try to get out there, maybe it's iTunes or BuyMusic or others. Should that be their whole focus, is trying to encourage people to do legal downloading, not go after the illegal side?

COPELAND: I think in the long run they're going to have to really focus on the business.

I think the services that are out there now, with the exception of iTunes and a couple of others, are a bit clunky. But if they've cut their effort into building a service that was as convenient as downloading is now, I think they could draw a lot of -- there's 40 million households in America that have at least one digital music file on their computer. That's a huge opportunity.

So there shouldn't be sort of targeting them with lawsuits. They should be targeting them with sort of offers and good services that these people will then convert into paying for their music.

SIEBERG: What about the artists in this case. The recording industry is meant to represent a lot of these artists and the record labels. But what are you hearing that they are saying about these lawsuits? Do they feel that they're a little bit too heavy-handed?

COPELAND: I think I've heard, it was the lead singer of the band, the Flaming Lips. He likes to have the band's music out there, and he thinks that the more people who listen to it the more people who might go in and buy it, whether it's a single song from iTunes or the entire album in a record shop or a CD store.

I think that artists have good reason to be worried that their fans are being treated harshly, and may turn away and never want to buy their music again.

SIEBERG: Speaking of fans, as we mentioned earlier, some of the people that were named in these lawsuits were younger. They were children. They were, in one case, there's a 12-year-old girl. Should parents be responsible for what their kids are doing online, if they're participating in this illegal activity?

COPELAND: Parents should be responsible for a lot of things. Whether they are is another question.

I think kids probably don't have a real good sense that this is illegal, and -- but even if they do understand that it is illegal, that doesn't mean they're going to stop doing it. There was -- sort of file sharing traffic slumped at the end of the summer, and it picked up, right up again as soon as school started. So kids are going to take risks, and they'll continue this file sharing, unless there's a real easy alternative, and an alternative that they can afford.

SIEBERG: All right, Mike, we only have about 15 seconds left. But if you can, a quick summary, perhaps, on what you see the future of music downloading and music file sharing. Are these lawsuits eventually going to be the answer? What can we expect in the future?

COPELAND: I think we can expect more and more downloading. I think the music industry needs to embrace file sharing and work with Morpheus and Grokster and Kazaa and come up to a solution that works for all parties.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Michael Copeland from "Business 2.0," thank you very much for joining us from San Francisco. Thanks for being with us.

COPELAND: Thank you. Thanks.

SIEBERG: All right, Fredricka. That's going to do it for me. It's one of those stories that just keeps continuing. It seems like a new chapter every week.

WHITFIELD: It seems like it's never ending.

SIEBERG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: You're on top of it. Thanks very much, Dan.

All right, well, straight ahead, stuck in the South Pole with a medical emergency. Coming up, we'll talk to someone who knows firsthand what that's like.

And later in the show, the Guiness Book of World Records says this is the world's biggest TV screen. We'll show you what it's used for when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's the stuff of nightmares. Imagine yourself cut off from the world, virtually marooned at a tiny science station at the South Pole in the midst of a very long polar night, and you're sick.

That's what's going on right now, according to the federal agency that oversees the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. Authorities are telling us very little about the person who has fallen ill, out of respect for his privacy. But they are moving aircraft into position in Chile to be ready, in the event the decision is made to attempt a risky evacuation.

Joining us now from Wilmington, North Carolina, to help us understand what an emergency evacuation from the South Pole is all about is a woman who has been through it herself, Dr. Jerri Nielsen. She joins us now from North Carolina.

Good to see you, Doctor Nielsen.

DR. JERRI NIELSEN, WAS EVACUATED FROM SOUTH POLE: Hello, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know firsthand what it's like. You diagnosed yourself with breast cancer. You ended up having to treat yourself for the disease, as well, before it was safe enough to evacuate you to safety.

So describe why mid-September is a particularly dangerous time of year in which to try carry out an evacuation in the South Pole.

NIELSEN: Well, the South Pole's weather is such that you can only get in and out about four months a year. The rest of the time it's easier to get off outer space than off the South Pole.

And at this time of year, it's still too cold. Aircraft fuel turns to JELL-O. The hydraulics don't work. Not only that, but the weather patterns are very unstable. Terrible winds in the spring.

WHITFIELD: And because of that, the people who are generally part of this science center have to go through quite rigorous medical checkups before they even go, knowing that being able to get out for a medical emergency might be difficult, at best.

In your case, you had to wait quite awhile before it was finally safe for you.

We don't know much about this worker who has fallen ill in the South Pole. We don't know if the evacuation will take place. But under ordinary circumstances, is there always at least one doctor there to perhaps administer what kind of medical attention can be given?

NIELSEN: That's right. There's always a doctor there. During the time I was there, the doctor was the only medical person. Now, there's also other people who are educated in the medical arts.

But everybody who goes to the South Pole has an extensive, extensive medical evaluation before they go, and even a major dental evaluation. They have teeth pulled, root canals done, and a psychiatric evaluation that takes an entire day.

WHITFIELD: And I understand sometimes, or at least in the past, there have been cases where people have their appendices removed simply because there may be a potential of a problem somewhere down the line.

NIELSEN: That's right. But mostly, that was done by the Navy for the Arctic. We don't do that anymore. I wish that they had at times, when I was nervous down there, being the doctor. There was a doctor who, in the '60s, removed his own appendix using a mirror from the Russian station. So that just shows you what people are capable of doing when they have to.

WHITFIELD: Unbelievable. In this case right now, given we don't know much about the medical condition, what sort of tools are available to the people at this center? What kind of medical treatment would they ordinarily be able to administer?

NIELSEN: Well, they have a physician who is trained as an internist. So they really don't have a surgical person. I don't know what kind of medical problems this person has. I think surgery is probably the most frightening there, because you don't have a surgeon. You don't have an anesthesia person.

But they have equipment. They have an X-ray machine, and some blood tests available to them, but a rudimentary hospital. Since I got sick there, they have added telemedicine. So now you can watch on the television through the Internet, and see what's going on and other doctors can evaluate from the United States. I'm sure that really helps.

WHITFIELD: They didn't initially have that in your case, but somebody really had the fortitude in which to kind of rig something like that in your case though, right?

NIELSEN: That's right. My wonderful girlfriend, Lisa Beale (ph), our computer tech, put together an old medical microscope, and a computer, and a camera. And it took her a month, but she was able to get the slides of the tissue that we got from my breast from doing a biopsy and send it over the Internet so that pathologists could actually read the slide in the United States. Now, that's really something. That's a MacGuyver.

WHITFIELD: No kidding. That's really fascinating. Well, Dr. Jerri Nielsen, we're so glad that you were able to join us. Thanks very much. And of course, our best wishes go out to the worker that we still don't know very much about, who is in the South Pole with potentially a serious medical problem.

NIELSEN: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Thanks very much, doctor.

NIELSEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, the South Pole isn't the only place where Mother Nature is showing her teeth.

Hurricane Isabel is still churning in the Atlantic, about 400 miles northeast of the U.S. Virgin Islands. So far, it is a category five storm with top winds of 160 miles per hour.

It's too soon to tell if Isabel will hit the U.S. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is making arrangements to protect the space shuttle fleet. David Waters from our affiliate central Florida News 13 has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID WATERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Everyone in NASA is keeping an eye on Hurricane Isabel, from the International Space Station astronauts, who just sent back this new view as they flew over, to NASA managers on the ground, who are protecting the remaining three space shuttles from the approaching hurricane.

BRUCE BUCKINGHAM, NASA: In anticipation of a possible storm coming our way, the first thing we're going to be doing is to close the payload bay doors. WATERS: Closing the giant payload bay doors on each orbiter will protect Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavor a bit, if there's a roof leak. But the buildings around the orbiter will take the brunt of the hurricane if it hits.

BUCKINGHAM: We feel confident that leaving the vehicles in those buildings will protect them.

WATERS: the strongest winds four years ago during Hurricane Floyd damaged the outside of the vehicle assembly building. Those winds reached 66 miles an hour.

Those two buildings are two of the three orbiter processing facilities. The three orbiters are in all three facilities right now. But those buildings and that giant vehicle assembly building behind me can only withstand 105 mile an hour winds, and Hurricane Isabel is much stronger.

BUCKINGHAM: If we do get a direct hit, there's not a whole lot you can do, other than just do the very best you can and then hope for the best.

WATERS: NASA says the best chance for the orbiters is where they are now, but they may take some extra steps, depending on what Hurricane Isabel does.

BUCKINGHAM: We can do anything like jack the orbiter up off the ground in case we get a tidal surge, so it's not flooded.

WATER: At the Kennedy Space Center, David Waters, central Florida, News 13.

WHITFIELD: There's violent weather on the other side of the globe, as well. A massive typhoon swept across South Korea overnight, but it's now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

South Korean officials say Typhoon Maemi is responsible for at least 62 deaths and 25 people, however, are still missing. When it hit the Korean Peninsula, Maemi carried winds near 134 miles per hour.

When we come back, a major figure in the history of nuclear weapons died this week. We'll have the story of a remarkable life.

And later, has voting technology improved since the 2000 presidential elections? We'll look at whether it will be an issue in the California recall election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The man many called the father of the H-bomb died this week at the age of 95. Edward Teller died Tuesday at his home on the Stanford University campus, suffering from a stroke.

Teller was considered a brilliant scientist, but was also a controversial figure who didn't hesitate to mix it up with the political arena. Ann Kellan looks back at his extraordinary life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN: At the dawn of the nuclear age, Edward Teller was there. Teller worked alongside Enrique Fermi when the first nuclear chain reaction was reached in Chicago in 1942.

Later, he joined the Manhattan Project with Robert Oppenheimer and others to build the first atomic bomb that exploded in the New Mexico desert.

Teller was born in Hungary in 1908. In the 1930s, he taught in Germany. He fled after Adolph Hitler came to power. During most of his adult life he would have a deep suspicion of totalitarianism.

Teller moved to the U.S. As one of the nation's leading engineers, he was recruited to join the team at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He helped design and test the two nuclear bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy, that were dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war in August 1945.

But Teller said the two cities should not have been destroyed. Instead, he said the U.S. should have demonstrated the weapons some place where there were no people, then told the Japanese to surrender.

After World War II, Teller went to work on the more powerful hydrogen bomb. It was because of that discovery he earned the title "the father of the H-Bomb."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's Tony going to his Cub Scout meeting. Tony knows the bomb can explode any time of the year, day or night. Duck and cover.

KELLAN: In the 1950s, as the country became preoccupied with the bomb and civil defense measures like duck and cover, Teller and Oppenheimer would become involved in a bitter dispute about the H- Bomb.

Oppenheimer, seeing the destruction caused by the bombs dropped on Japan, would oppose the development of the H-Bomb. Teller would urge that more bombs be built and tested. Teller even questioned Oppenheimer's loyalty to the U.S.

Coming in the early days of the so-called red scare and Cold War, it was a fierce accusation. Teller would later work on dozens of other military projects, including the founding of the Lawrence Livermore Weapons Research Labs in California.

EDWARD TELLER, SCIENTIST: This laboratory has done a lot to preserve peace by deterrence.

KELLAN: In the 1980s, he was a key supporter of President Reagan's plan for an anti-missile system that came to be known as Star Wars. TELLER: We are talking about defense, about saving of human lives, about deterring war by making the probability of victory by our adversaries small enough so that actually they will not attack us or attack our allies.

KELLAN: Edward Teller was considered a Cold War hawk for his unquestioned support of the atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb and later, SDI.

TELLER: I believe that what we need is to work against the causes of war, to work for international cooperation, and work on defensive efforts, to be simply against weapons is superficial and mistaken.

KELLAN: And when asked by CNN's Miles O'Brien in 1995 if he had any regrets about his sometimes controversial career, Teller responded...

TELLER: None whatsoever.

KELLAN: Ann Kellan, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up in our next half hour, you've seen a lot of the major candidates in the California recall election. But there are 135 people running. Can today's voting technology handle a ballot like that?

Also ahead, a family of homemade robots, built by a man who didn't finish grade school.

Those stories and much more coming up after a break and a check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: NEXT@CNN continues in a moment after a look at what's going on at this hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: More stories at thing be top of the hour. Now back to NEXT@CNN.

After the disaster of all those hanging chads and butterfly balance during the 2000 presidential election, a lot of states and the federal government moved fast to try to fix it. But could the fix make the problem worse? Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is back with more on the possibilities and the problems of electronic voting -- Dan.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Fredricka. Yeah, the global embarrassment, shall we say, of the 2000 U.S. presidential election got a lot of politicians looking for something new, something better. But, exactly where should technology fit into that picture? Well, the upcoming California recall election has put electronic voting in the spotlight, again.

And, joining me now is Professor David Dill from Stanford University, a computer scientist who's been studying electronic voting, and in Sacramento Kim Alexander, president of the nonprofit nonpartisan California Voter Organization.

David, I'd like to start with you, if I could. First of all, do you believe that electronic voting, and we're talking about touch screens, here. Do you think that they're capable of handling the California recall election at this point? What are the potential pitfalls involved?

DAVID DILL, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Well, I think the worst pitfall is that everything appears to go totally smoothly, but we don't know whether the votes coming out of the machines match what went into the machines.

SIEBERG: OK, let's talk a little bit in general, first of all, these machines are a touch screen machine, you go up there and select the candidates. There are a number of different types of technologies that are being used; there are 135 candidates on the ballot. First of all, can this technology even handle that number of candidates?

DILL: I'm not sure. It's got to be difficult for a voter. They're going to have to page through all of those candidates and find their chosen person in the middle of a list that's been basically randomly ordered. So, that can't be too easy. But, there are going to be problems even with paper ballots, that's know not my biggest concern, here.

SIEBERG: All right, Kim, we're seeing some images of people who have been voting in the past. What has voter response been to electronic voting or this type of technology? Have people been positive about it, the average voter out there?

KIM ALEXANDER, CALIF. VOTER FOUNDATION: We really don't know. There haven't been comprehensive polls that have been done across the nation. The only poll I've seen was done in Georgia, following the 2002 presidential election, when that state went all touch screen and that poll, done by a Peachstate Poll found a significant racial disparity in voter confidence between black voters and white voters. So, I'm not at all confident that voters are confident that these machines are going to work in a way that will store their ballots properly.

SIEBERG: Now, we've also been hearing about security concerns, most recently a couple of university researchers found what they believe were holes in the code that helped to operate these machines. Why does it seem like -- and odd too, this is to either of you -- why does seem like so many politicians and county officials are so eager to adopt this technology?

DILL: Well, the technology has some advantages.

ALEXANDER Well, I...

DILL: So they're not talking to computer scientists enough, I think is my quick answer. I'll let Kim take it from there.

ALEXANDER: One of the reasons why the machines are popular with election officials is because they are being sold to them by the vendors on the promise that they're paperless and that these election officials won't need to store paper ballots anymore. But, you know, at the end of the day, I can't think of anything more important for our election departments to do than to protect our paper ballots. So, what my group, the California Voter Foundation and others, are calling for is a voter verified paper trail to back up the ballots and if we had that, we would be able to address most of the risks associated with computerized voting.

SIEBERG: OK now, we talked -- I touched on earlier how there are some different technologies being used throughout California. I believe we have a graphic that will help to illustrate just how many different counties there are and how many different ones -- different types of technology. We see here that there is the Data Vote, Optical Scan, Punch Card and Touch Screen. Does this make it more difficult to try and tabulate all of this? Should there be a streamlined way of handling all the votes, whether in California or anywhere else, and would technology help that? David, can you answer that question?

DILL: I'm not sure that we need a uniform standard across the state voting equipment. What my biggest concern is is that we not adopt unsafe voting equipment, and I consider the touch screen machines that are now being considered, and that have been purchased in some places, as just not being sufficiently trustworthy for the important task of handling our elections.

SIEBERG: Is there a way between now and the California recall election to assuage everybody's concerns or are we sort of on the path to that and we're just going to have to see what happens after the election results? Kim, can you answer that question?

ALEXANDER: Yes, one thing that the four counties that are using touch screens for the recall, which is Alameda, Plumas, Riverside, and Shasta one thing that they could do is to print out paper ballot images of every digital ballot cast and make those available to the public if there is a need for a recount. That's something that voters thought they were getting when they passed the Prop 41 Modernization Bond Act in march, 2002, and the counties aren't doing it, and I think if we had, at a minimum, these paper ballot images, that would help address some of the risks. Ideally those paper ballot images would not be printed at the end of the voting day, but they would be printed at the time the voter votes because the voter is the only person who knows for sure how they intend to vote, so those paper ballot images should be produced at the polling places, they should stay at the polling places and we can use those to conduct a recount if necessary.

SIEBERG: And of course, many people just -- most people just don't get a chance to vote very often, so they're obviously not practicing using any of these touch screen machines.

David, let's talk a little bit, though, about the security of the code again, one more time. The companies that make these different machines say it's proprietary, they cannot allow anyone to look at the code and see just how secure that it is. What can be done about that? Should there be more of an oversight on this code and the making of these machines?

DILL: Well, absolutely, there needs to be more oversight. The current situation -- the current process for approving these things and designing them is obviously full of holes. The researchers you mentioned earlier proved that by looking at code that was accidentally released by one of the largest vendors of voting machines. Beyond that, the solution that Kim suggests is really the one that I prefer. Instead of focusing on trying make the machines more bullet-proof, let's just have a backup mechanism where voters can say check their votes were properly recorded and then if we have a manual recount, we can be guaranteed it's meaningful, because it's counting the ballots the voters themselves have checked for accuracy.

SIEBERG: All right, well, let's end on a positive note. We only got about 20 to 30 seconds left. Kim, touch screen voting and technology -- you know, it was intended to solve some problems and make life a little easier, giving disabled people a chance to vote easier. What are some of the positive notes we can talk about with touch screen or technology voting?

ALEXANDER: There are a lot of positives, and I actually would prefer myself to vote on a computer interface than on a paper ballot that I've been using -- the punch card, because I think it is more user-friendly. We can do ballots in multiple languages; we can give disabled people the ability to cast a secret ballot without assistance and those are all things we can do. So, just to be clear, I'm not opposed to touch screen voting. I just want to see it implemented responsibility so everybody can have confidence in the outcome elections and our voting ballots can be actually transparent to everyone.

SIEBERG: Kim Alexander, the president of the nonprofit nonpartisan California Voter Foundation and David Dill, a computer scientist at Stanford University.

Thank you both for joining us today.

DILL: Thank you.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

SIEBERG: Fredricka, that's going to do it for me. I guess there's a lot of optimism surrounding the technology and e-voting, but it needs to be tempered with making sure everything's in place and the security concerns addressed. So, we just have to wait and see, as we always say, what happens after the election. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Good advice. Thanks a lot, Dan.

SIEBERG: All right.

WHITFIELD: Well, when we come back, if you like big screen TVs, you'll love this. We'll show what you it takes to light up a screen that's longer than a 747. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How can a male Baboon recognize which of these youngsters is his when females mate with several males and only produce one offspring? Father's know according to findings in the journal "Nature."

SUSAN ALBERTS, DUKE UNIVERSITY: The female's really quite calm and relaxed, sitting next to him.

KELLAN: Despite multiple sex partners here, mother seems to know who dad is, too. She's comfortable when one male touches her infant, but when another tries...

ALBERTS: The other male's going to approaches again and try to hold the infant and that makes her nervous, she cowers and moves away.

KELLAN: Susan Alberts, along with other researchers at Duke, Prinston, UCLA, and the Museum of Kenya have spent years tracking Baboon groups in Kenya. They studied their DNA and found dads, not only know their own offspring, they protect them.

ALBERTS: They'll get between the kid and its opponent, threaten the kid's opponent, they'll chase the kid's opponent off.

KELLAN: Similar to this scene.

ALBERTS: What you see here, is a male intervening on behalf of his little sister.

KELLAN: A father baboon, she says, would act the same way and stand up to the bully.

ALBERTS: You can see the little girl hiding behind her brother, staying close to him and eventually he chases her aggressor off.

KELLAN: How do the fathers baboons know their offspring? Researchers can't say exactly. There's an armpit theory, dad can smell himself in the offspring or maybe he can see similarities in features. Maybe the mother sends signals to the male. But, how she knows is again, anyone's guess.

Ann Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, time now for a check of some "NEXT News" headlines. Police have arrested a man in last month's arson and vandalism incident at a California car dealership. 20 hummers were destroyed and another 20 hummers and SUVs were damaged by fire and spray painting. The Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of militant environmentalists, claimed responsibility. Joshua Connelly is now being held at the West Covina, California jail. He denies any involvement. University of Tokyo researchers have developed the first humanoid robot that can jump up from a lying down position and into a crouched position. The researchers say conventional robots get up slowly because every little movement is controlled. They say the movement of this robot is controlled only at certain points, that allows it to follow its own momentum to jump into that crouching position.

And, a farmer outside Beijing has created some robots of his own from junk and recycled materials. Farmer Woo Uloo (PH) has made robots that can dance, jump, walk, run, on ceilings, even screw in light bulbs, and light up cigarettes. Look at that.

Well, the neighbors called Woo's creations his sons. Woo says robots can replace humans in doing some very simple chores. He says robots are more trustworthy and they're not as lazy. Woo has created more than 20 machines over the past eight years and he never finished primary school. He's brilliant just naturally.

Well, horseracing is hugely popular in Hong Kong and one racetrack has pulled out all the stops to give visitors a good look at all the action.

Kristie Lu Stout has the story, now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On race day up to 40,000 punters hit the stands at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, all clamoring for a piece of the action. They now have another way to keep track of the race, the mother of all TVs.

(on camera): This Diamond Vision screen is eight meters high and 70.4 meters wide. Now, that's roughly the length of a Boeing 747.

(voice-over): It's a Guinness World Record holder and the pride of Steve Beason, the club's executive director of I.T.

STEVE BEASON, HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB: We went everywhere to actually procure this. As you can imagine, you don't go and buy these...

STOUT (on camera): You can't buy these on the shelves.

BEASON: No, they don't have them in most shops and they don't fit in most people's houses, so we traveled all over the world to look at the different venders and conduct a lot of discrete tests with our team. We had audio/visual, we had racing, we had betting people, we had, of course, had I.T., but traveling all around the world, including out to Montreal in the middle of winter just to make sure we got the right product to bring to Hong Kong.

STOUT: It's the longest in the world -- it's longer from the screen -- then the screens that you've had in the past, but is it necessarily better in terms of clarity or resolution?

BEASON: Yeah, the resolution is much better with this screen. I have an LED segment here, that shows you all of the different pixels of the screen. This is a comparison of what the old one looked like. As you can see here, this is what -- what makes up one dot or one image on it. We can show over ten million colors on this screen, here and you can see the resolution's much better. We're actually able to show six different simultaneous TV screens on that Diamond Vision, right now, so it provides for much better clarity, much better resolution, and a lot more information to our customers.

STOUT: This is one single panel -- you can just look at the number of microchips in back, here. How many of these panels make up that TV screen?

BEASON: Actually, about 4,000 of these panels make up the screen.

STOUT: It looks cool, it sounds cool that -- to say that you own and operate the world's longest TV. But, do you need one in a live event? I mean, how does it change the experience of horseracing?

BEASON: Well, I mean, we have a continued mission, really, to provide world-class betting and racing entertainment to Hong Kong and the world, for that matter, and this actually provides an enriched product to the customers. They don't have to peer over the top just to see their horses when they're on the back stretch, now they can see the close-up of the race, they can also see the wide-angle shot of the race and of course, during bright sunlight like we're in right now, you can see it's crisp and clear. So, that's important to providing a real good, immersive experience for our customers.

STOUT: Well, Steve Beason, thank you very much, indeed. And thank you for sharing what is a bit of, literally, a piece of record- breaking technology, here at the Sha Tin racecourse.

I'm Kristie Lu Stout for CNN in Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When we get back, how would you like to get paid to play computer games? We'll meet a guy who makes a living -- a pretty good living, doing just that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, kids may have a little ammunition to fire back at mom and dad next time they're told to turn off that Playstation or Xbox. There's a whole new career field emerging right now, professional video game player and you can make some pretty serious bucks, too.

Technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, is back with more on that story. Hi Dan, again.

SIEBERG: Hi Fred, you can just hear some parents groaning, right now...

WHITFIELD: Yeah. Oh man. SIEBERG: ...when they're watching this, can't you? Well, it might...

WHITFIELD: They're not going to like you after this.

SIEBERG: That's right. But, you know, it might be one of the top ten signs of the apocalypse, at least some parents might think so. Some other kids, well, they might be really envious. And, our next guest gets paid to play video games. The sponsorship was announced Tuesday by CompUSA and Nvidia Corporation to help them out and Dave "Moto" Geffon joins us now, from Los Angeles.

Dave, first of all, this recent sponsorship you've gotten from Invidia and CompUSA, how does this help you to be able to play video games? Are you getting salary or some extra money is this -- and is this your only job?

DAVE "MOTO" GEFFON, PRO VIDEO GAME PLAYER: Well, Daniel, this is my only job, this is my own means of income and I do make enough money playing games to support myself, full time.

SIEBERG: And, for some people out there let's just step back for a second, and they might sort of scoff at this, they might say you're playing video games, you're getting paid to do this. Is this a legitimate job for somebody? How do you respond to that?

GEFFON: You know, I view it as a legitimate job, because we work hard. We spend time working to practice and get better, and we dedicate as much time a day as most people would at any normal -- other job. We practice anywhere from four to eight hours a day and we're serious about what we do.

SIEBERG: All right, well let's explain to people who aren't familiar with how your team works -- Team 3-D. You guys play "Counter-Strike," which is one of the most popular games out there, in terms of a multiplayer game. And, we're some -- we're just seeing some images of how you all get together and compete in different tournaments. Explain to people how this works and how you get paid for that?

GEFFON: Well, we get together, usually, we can get anywhere from 12 to 13 tournaments a year. They usually take place from about three seven days and compete against other teams around the world for large cash prizes, and at these tournaments we can win up to anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000. I mean, we're really making good money.

SIEBERG: And, the next tournament you're going to be playing in is in October, I believe, and this is the World Cyber Games in Korea? Tell me about that.

GEFFON: Yeah, the World Cyber Games is almost like the Olympics of professional gaming. All the best players and teams from around the world gather in Seoul, Korea, and take part in a large, like I said, Olympic-style event against each other, and you have these teams competing -- I think it's 55 different countries, and all -- it's all the best teams around the world competing for, I believe it's $350,000 U.S. cash price.

SIEBERG: And, you -- probably helps to have a pretty nice PC to play some of these games. We're seeing some of the more tricked-out or hotrod machines. Does that give you a competitive advantage? Do you have your own type of computer you use?

GEFFON: Oh, absolutely. I have actually, several computers that are all top of the line and when you're a professional gamer, as myself, you've got to always be on top of technology to be able to play your best and compete with everyone else. I mean, you got to be right up there.

SIEBERG: Dave, for some of the people out there who might be skeptical of what you do and the idea of a professional gamer -- what needs to happen to legitimize this as a sport, let's say, and to make it more appealing to spectators, because a lot of people may not know what's going on.

GEFFON: You know, I think people need to realize what we're doing is -- it's not an easy job. Playing video games competitively is very intense, there's a lot of practice involved and there's a lot of pressure. We practice hard. We have a desire to win and we want to win. There's already a large spectator contingency of people who follow the tournaments and, I mean, the last major tournament we went to -- I think upwards of 50,000 people were spectating the event. I think more people just need to step back and kind of open up and realize, yeah, this is something pretty serious going on.

SIEBERG: All right, well Dave "Moto" Geffon funny way to be serious about video games. Probably a little bit of fun thrown in there, I'm sure you have a little bit of fun on occasions.

GEFFON: Absolutely, it's a lot of fun, what we do.

SIEBERG: All right, well Dave "Moto" Geffon from Los Angeles, thanks so much for joining us, a professional gamer out there, Fredricka. So, again, it might make some people jealous and it make might (SIC) some people just sort of scoff in disbelief. So, just depending on which side of the fence you're on.

WHITFIELD: I have a feeling is he the envy of a whole lot of folks out there.

SIEBERG: A whole lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot, Dan.

SIEBERG: All right.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's all we have time for, today. But, "NEXT" will be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern time. Among the stories we'll be covering: The color of money. Some U.S. bills will soon be taking on a pastel tint. We'll tell you why, how, and when you'll be seeing these new hues in your wallet. That's story and more coming up tomorrow. Hope you'll be joining us and watching us. Thanks for watching today. Ahead on CNN: "CNN Live Saturday" coming up in just a few minutes from now. In the "Dollar Sign" segment we'll take your phone calls and e-mail questions on how to negotiate the best deal, whether it be buying a car or perhaps negotiating a new salary. And, that's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time, with profiles of Osama bin Laden and Phil Spector. And, "CNN Live Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern with the look at a unique program that's helping the children of victims of the September 11th attacks.

First, a quick break, and then I'll be telling you what's happening at this hour.

END

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